Somewhere beneath the murky sludge of a swamp, just shy of the capital, sits a parcel of Kentucky history swept under the proverbial rug. Stricken with a dark melee of violence, poverty and a rough reputation, the fifty acres of brackish bog formerly known as “the Craw” or “the Bottom” was a once an experimental community that quickly became an overlooked mire and was demolished some decades ago. While “good riddance” may seem at a surface glance to befit such a neighborhood, historian Douglas A. Boyd sees more than the quagmire.

In his new book, Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community, Douglas A. Boyd breathes some new insight into the people once often described as those “who didn’t mind killing or being killed”. Using a potent written potion of history, folklore and geography, Boyd faces the trials of this lost community with a meditative eye and captures the sense of belonging, friendship and unique cultural vigor that defined the neighborhood and defied racial segregation. Possessing a keen pulse of nostalgia as retold by the residents who remember, Boyd’s Crawfish Bottom shines a light on a people and a community that Kentucky almost completely destroyed.

Boyd, a director of Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky, will present the unique history, Crawfish Bottom, during a special presentation in conjunction with The Filson Historical Society. Join him this Wednesday, January 18th, at noon as he offers a rare and compelling look into a time and place seldom explored with an earnest eye. This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are encouraged.

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I'm a Louisville native who transplanted home from Las Vegas recently. Don't ask.
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